BURBANK : New YMCA Pool Offers Free Lessons

Swimming and the first week of lessons at a new YMCA pool opening Monday will be free, said Randy Lewis, the executive director of the Burbank YMCA.

Construction on the above-ground pool will begin at the Luther Burbank Middle School Friday morning and could be finished that night, Lewis said. The pool will be next to a metal shop on school property that the YMCA uses for its latchkey and day-care programs.

There are four other pools in Burbank offering swimming lessons this summer--one at John Burroughs High School, another at the Burbank YMCA and two run by the city’s Parks and Recreation Department.

“All (swim classes), to our knowledge, operate at capacity,” Lewis said. “This new pool will allow children who missed deadlines or were otherwise excluded from other programs to learn to swim this summer,” Lewis said.

The 21-by-41-foot pool, which costs $10,000, is being built by a special grant from the YMCA’s Mens Club, Lewis said. It is about three-quarters of the size of the Burbank YMCA’s pool at 321 East Magnolia Blvd.

Community members will also be able to swim for free at the pool during that first week from 11:45 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. and from 4:45 to 6 p.m.

After the first week, lessons will cost $25 for four weeks for YMCA members and $35 for Burbank residents. Community swimming will cost $1, Lewis said.

“It will stay open as long as people come,” said Lewis, who added that the YMCA was considering installing a dome on the above-ground pool for swimming during the winter months if there was a continuing interest.

The lessons are for any children from 6 months to 17 years old. Luther Burbank Middle School is near the North Hollywood border on Jeffries Avenue.